The Irish standard., 1887-08-20

li3h law-that is to say, not until the
statute Of Elizabeth in 1562-was witch
craft declared in England to be crime
in itself, to be punished with death.
Under James 1. witch finding became
almost fine art, and the accounts OF
the cruelties to which the hapless
witches" +" were subjected to Eng.
land during the time when Protestant
zeal and fanaticiam ruled that country,
are enough to harrow even the hardest
Of hearts. Ard just in proportion tot the
growth Of Professionalism in England
grew the witchcraft mania with all it's
attendant horrors. During the sitting
Of the notorious Long Parliament, when
PuriJallism dominated England, 5000
persons, according to the estimates,
were put to death in England for witch
craft. The last execution there was
that of Mrs. Hicks and her daughter
in JIG, ON the accusation Of having
sold their souls to the devil, and for
having on several occasions raised a
storm ny pulling off their stockings and
at the same time making a lather Of
soap. So grave a Protestant legal
writer as Blackstone says that Ito deny
the possibility, pay actual existence. OF
Witchcraft and sorcery is at once f1atly
TO contradict the revealed word Of God
both Of the Old and New Testament,
and the thing itself is a truth to which
every nation in the world hath in it's
turn borne testimony" Froni the
first case i'll the reign of Henry VIII, to
that OF Mrs Hicks. it is estimated that
in England 10000 persons were put to
death by law for witchcraft. The his
tory Of England during the dark or
Protestant period that covers the seven
teenth and part of the eighteenth CEN
turies has been written for us almost
exclusively by Protestants, and it is,
therefore, distinguished for careful
reserve as to the many evils that fol-
lowed the establishment OF Protestant
ism. The real truth Of the history Of
that period-a period Of black hypocrisy
and harsh persecution lin its social,
moral and political aspects, will pro-
baby never be Neutrality-suspicious. the
maze of rhet,,ric which Styrpe, Gilbert
Bnrnet, Hume, Macau'ay and smaller
writers, such as the late MIR. Green,
have spun about it, until The time com. 8
that competent Catholic writers shall
be enabled to give it to the world. AS
for Scotland, the accounts are frightful.
The first Scottish act Of Parliament
against witchcrs.ft was passed in 1868,
in Difference to the wishes Of john
Knox and his friends. Some years
later, on the occasion Of the marriage
Of ScOtland's first Protestant king,
thirty persons were executed N Edln-
burgh, charged with having inspired
with Satan against the life Ut James.
Indeed, it may be said without exag ger
alton that the Presbyterian clergy Of
Scotland seemed lohave resolved them
selves into q committee Of witch find
ers. The General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Kirk almost yearly re-
neWed it's deuu1ciations Of The witches,
and Of those who harbored them. or
failed to inform against them The
civil courts Of Scotland were ODE dient
to the kirk, aud in 1859 Il single circuit
in the neighborhood Of Glasgow con
yicted and burned seventeen persons.
The total number supposed to have
been capitally punished in Scotland be
tween 1863 (the date Of the first penal
enactment) and l722, when the last VIC
tim, an old woman, was executed by
the sheriff of Caithness, is 1000. Con-
sitlering both that this was limited al
most exclusively to the southern and
other most intensely Protestant parts of
Scotland, and that in those days the
population of Scotland was compare
lively small, some idea may be formed
of the fury to which the Witchcraft
fanaticism had been lashed by the
preaching and legislation of the Pres
byterian kirk. So late as 1880 there
was published at Edinburgh a serious
and systematic commentary on Scottish
law, under the title Of ''l'he Institutes
oe the Law Of Scotland. Its author,
William Forbes. was a jurist of reputa-
ton in Scotland at that time. III the
"Institutes" the following passage ap-
pears: Nothing seems palmer to me
than that there may be, and have been
witches, and that perhaps such are
now actually existing; which intend,
God willing, to clear in larger work,
concerning the criminal lava prom
ised work, by the way, which appar-
emily was never published.
The. lining makers at ]. H. Winch
ellis shoe manufactory at Iaverhill
went out o', ST., ike Aug. 4, because an
advance of 20 cents per sixty pair cases
was refused.
Tom O'Reilly Of New York has
been unanimously elected to represent
the National district Of 'Telepra nharS at